Remembering words

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Voytek
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Remembering words

Postby Voytek » Wed Nov 23, 2016 7:09 pm

Do you have any special method and could share it with me or the most of you rely on own memory only. I had never used any memorizing method until I started to use Anki 3 month ago. It`s quite effective but it takes me a iot of time to do the flashcards. So, I`m curious about your approach. :)
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Re: Remembering words

Postby Finny » Thu Nov 24, 2016 1:53 am

I pretty much never write anything down; I learn new words primarily implicitly (through reading / listening) or occasionally explicitly (looking up specific ones). Some words stick immediately; many take many exposures or lookups before I get them. The most reliable way for me to learn a word is after talking about it with a native speaker.
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Re: Remembering words

Postby Iversen » Thu Nov 24, 2016 1:00 pm

There is so much to say about this topic that I just will give an extremely short comment. And that comment is that there are two things that will make a word stick: a proper memorization before you have forgotten it and suitably spaced repetitions.

The memorization "before you have forgotten" means that you can try to get through a number of repetitions during the few seconds where the word is still in your immediate memory OR you can use a technique where the word is writtten down which effectively prolongs the period you have got to do a proper job in the first place. I see my three-column wordlist method as such a method, but so is any method where you write things down, check unknown words along the way and then immediately return to reread (or retranslate) the text.

If you read (or listen) extensively then you may also meet a certain word several times. There are some research reports that show that the effect of this is strongly dependent on your attention to the new words in the text or speech. You can skip a word thirty times and still not learn it, but if you take your time to think about it then chances are that you remember it.

Finally there are the techniques where you use a technique to plan a series of recurrences. The SRS systems (like Anki) do this (and not much else), but to some extent the same applies to the goldlist method - although the number of repetitions here varies for the words in each bunch. WIth my own wordlist method I normally just do one repetition, sometimes two, but rarely more. My opinion is that if a word is worth retaining then it should occur again and again in my extensive reading.

I don't expect to learn lots of words from speaking to other humans, including native speakers - partly because I rarely are involved in such conversations, partly because I rarely have time to write the new words down during them (or while I listen to for instance TV programs).
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Re: Remembering words

Postby smallwhite » Thu Nov 24, 2016 1:34 pm

You can find all HTLAL posts with the tag «Vocabulary learning» here:
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/fo ... .asp?KW=86

Teaser:

Super-fast vocabulary learning techniques
How many words do you learn per day?
How much time studying vocabulary?
Has anybody tried the Gold List method?
How many words do you need to learn?
Article: Students fall short on Vocabulary
How many words you learn per year (avg)
Strategy: Learn 600 words a week.
Learning Vocab without Studying Vocab




I use Memrise and Quizlet. I use shared decks (for quantity) and I also mine words from my reading (for quality). Ratio is 5289:1180 at the moment for Dutch.
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Re: Remembering words

Postby Voytek » Thu Nov 24, 2016 3:21 pm

The site you recommended is empty and spacy.
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Re: Remembering words

Postby Iversen » Thu Nov 24, 2016 3:32 pm

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Re: Remembering words

Postby Voytek » Thu Nov 24, 2016 6:29 pm

Iversen, do you still use this method or you`ve modified it?

1. Write a short list of 5-7 words in your target language.

2. Read through them until you are confident you know the translation.

3. Write a second list consisting of the translation for these words.

4. Read through it till you're confident that you know the original words.

5. Reread the original words.

6. To solidify the knowledge, rewrite the original words in a third column.


I`d never had any problems with memorizing words for my English and Spanish exams so I`m fond of giving a try to your method because it may be a better mehod for me than the Anki method which is very arduous and time-consuming.
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Re: Remembering words

Postby Iversen » Thu Nov 24, 2016 6:53 pm

If you refer to my wordlist method then I still use the original layout with three columns, groups of 5-7 words, covering of column while filling out column 3 etc. This format has served me well and my measurements suggest that it works, so I have had no reason to modify it.

However I have experimented a lot with the layout for the repetition (or repetitions). I mostly use a layout with two columns, but depending on my familiarity with the language I can use a column with words in the target language as the first column in the repetitition format (easier because I only have to recognize the words), or I can copy the column with the translations (because I have to do some active recall). If I do a second repetition it may consist in one of the two formats or contain one column with the foreign words and a second one with a translation when and only when I don't remember the meaning of a word. I came up with this last format in order to be able to count the percentage of successes, but it has also proven its value as an ultrasimple repetition format. In some cases I have also used this last format for the 1. repetition round, but with lists based on a text, where I already have worked with the words as I found them in the text.

... or graphically (T: target language, B: base language)

round 1:

t b t
t b t
t b t
...

round 2a

t b or b t
t b or b t
...

round 3 (sometimes 2)

t
t b (translation if and only with forgotten or dubious words)
t
t
..
..
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Re: Remembering words

Postby Ezy Ryder » Thu Nov 24, 2016 6:54 pm

How do you plan going about reviewing them afterwards, without Anki?

EDIT: Considering Iversen has posted right before me, I suppose I should clarify the question was aimed at Voytek.
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Re: Remembering words

Postby Voytek » Thu Nov 24, 2016 7:05 pm

Ezy Ryder wrote:How do you plan going about reviewing them afterwards, without Anki?

EDIT: Considering Iversen has posted right before me, I suppose I should clarify the question was aimed at Voytek.


Honestly, I`d never reviewed English or Spanish words until I started to use Anki but simply if I encountered a word that I should have remembered but I didn`t I looked it up again.
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